'Not welcome': Indian High Commissioner to UK stopped from entering Scotland gurudwara by radical Sikh activists

A group of radical British Sikh activists reportedly prevented Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Vikram Doraiswami from entering a gurdwara in Scotland on Friday, September 29.

A pro-Khalistan Sikh activist, while giving out information of the incident, said that some of them found out that Doraiswami had a meeting planned with the gurdwara committee of the Glasgow Gurdwara on Albert Drive.

"A few people turned up and told him he was not welcome. There was a slight confrontation," the activist said, according to an India Today report.

"I don't think the gurdwara committee is too happy about what happened. But Indian officials are not welcome in any gurdwara in the UK," he claimed.

This comes amid a row between India and Canada over the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia. The standoff began after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's explosive allegations of the "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar on his country's soil. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.

India angrily rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

The governments of India and Canada will have to talk to each other and see how they resolve their differences over the death of a Khalistani separatist, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said. During an interaction in Washington on Friday, he said India was ready to look into the information related to Canada's allegations of the "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

Jaishankar said India has had an ongoing problem with Canada and its government for some years now, and the problem really revolves around the "permissiveness in regard to terrorism, extremism and ballots," he said.

Meanwhile, sources on Wednesday told news agency PTI that pro-Khalistan elements based in Canada have been luring gullible Sikh youth to the North American country by sponsoring their visas with the sole objective of using them to carry out their agenda on Canadian soil.

Also Read: Let's not normalise what is happening in Canada, says External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in US

Also Read: Internal politics grants safe haven to terrorists in Canada: S Jaishankar

Also Read: Canada police say probe into Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killing 'active, ongoing'

Also Read: 'Canada still committed to closer ties with India, despite allegations': Justin Trudeau